Thank you for your patience... I'm back!
Is life less hectic? The answer is no, but I think I might have got a bit more of a handle on the many, many balls I have in the air right now.
(1)
Ugh, the haze. It drapes across Singapore, stinging eyes, and triggering people with sensitive respiratory tracts. It has prompted Sport Singapore to close all outdoor and non-air-conditioned ActiveSG facilities. N95 masks are now being distributed—with some hiccups—to eligible Singaporeans: the elderly, pregnant women, children, people with medical conditions, etc.
It already sucks, but it's likely to get worse... and last for weeks. It might even reach hazardous levels, says Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment. The possibility of closing schools and rescheduling exams has been floated, although preschools will stay open to support parents in need of childcare.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said that the government is looking into companies responsible for the haze and might take legal action. A day later, Fu said that Singapore will be issuing notices under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to seven companies in Indonesia, requiring them to take measures to deal with fires on their land. The government might also want to take a look at a report published by Greenpeace earlier this month that linked some of the fires to entities in Singapore. The Straits Times did a follow-up to this report, reaching out to the Singapore-based companies mentioned: one did not respond to queries, another insisted that the detection of hotspots doesn't “by itself establish the origin of a fire, responsibility for its occurrence, or any deliberate use of fire for land clearing by the concession holder”.
(2)
Disagree with an outcome, so change the law? Back in September, three judges of the High Court—including Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon—ruled in favour of four young people who had originally been sentenced to reformative training for scam-related offences. The four had been between the ages of 16 and 19 when the offences were committed.
In making this decision, the judges said that reformative training or incarceration shouldn't be the default for minors convicted of scam-related offences—even if that's what the recommendations issued by the Sentencing Advisory Panel in 2024 say. After all, the judges said, these recommendations aren't actually legally binding, and the existing framework prefers rehabilitation for young people in conflict with the law.
K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Coordinating Minister for National Security, was not a fan of this decision. Earlier this month, he told Parliament that new laws will be introduced, and that they'll make clear that the High Court's ruling is not to be followed. “If young offenders are being treated more leniently simply because of their age, you can be sure that scam syndicates will have every incentive to recruit more young people as mules," he said. The answer? Punish them kids! Make the penalty harsh so that it'll be a deterrent to everyone. (Basically, Singapore's favourite refrain.)
CNA has published an explainer pointing out that while the courts interpret law, Parliament has the prerogative to pass and amend laws, and so it's completely within their power to introduce new legislation or amend existing ones to make their intention clearer for the courts to follow in the future. This is true, but we shouldn't ignore the context of the PAP's parliamentary supermajority. The PAP has the numbers to pass any law or amendment that they want, and even amend the constitution (which they have already done many, many times). It's not like there's a meaningful debate in Parliament about any new legislation that the government might want to pass because they disagree with a court ruling; there's simply not enough opposition seats to make a difference or force the government to slow down and really work to defend or polish whatever it is they want to push through. Given this political reality, I'm much more wary of how and when the government decides to act on its disagreements with court decisions.
(3)
Kokila Annamalai's trial for defying a POFMA order took place on 7 and 8 August. You can watch court reports by Mel from Student Actions from Transformative jUstice (SATU) here and here, covering both days of the trial. The court is set to reconvene in January 2027 for further submissions, with the verdict scheduled for February.
We also had Picnic Against POFMA on both days—the first night was at Hong Lim Park as planned, but we ended up relocating to the Arts & Civil Space for the second night because of the haze. On the first night, Rocky Howe spoke on the toxic relationship between POFMA and the death penalty—it's one of the subject matters that has received the most POFMA directions. On the second night, I spoke about POFMA and the media, arguing that POFMA undermines media freedom, making it harder for journalists to do our work withour fear or favour, and that this ultimately harms all Singaporeans' ability to access information, be media literate, and participate in public discourse.
And since I was playing around with Canva, I decided to make one more...
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Music for the weekend! I've had this one on repeat since the album dropped.